Friday, October 28, 2005

BGG.con: Friday, Oct 28

Today is erev shabbat, which means most of the time we are thinking about what to buy, cook, etc. on shabbat. Still, when shabbat starts late, there is plenty of time to do other stuff.

Walking around the strip malls of Prenton and Forest, I dropped letters sent from Israel into a mailbox (cheaper and faster to mail from within the U.S.). Then I bought an exacto knife and cutting mat so that I could cut the remaining 27 game prototypes. I also bought more glass stones, since my paper coins are not enjoyable to play with. I may not even bother cutting them out. If I send you a game prototype, you are better off just using stones or poker chips.

I also stopped into a Tom's Thumb that glaringly declares itself "kosher" outside the store. Inside the store, the first thing I see is pork chops, bacon, and shrimp salad. Obviously a different meaning of the word kosher than I am used to. The full story is that one of the meat departments and the bakery is kosher, and they have a half an aisle of specifically kosher stuff. The remainder is the usual supermarket fare. Better than nothing. There is enough types of food to provide for me during the con. It's all very expensive.

I think a typical Loblaws in Toronto, or D'Agastinos in New York, contains more kosher food than this supermarket. Back to checking labels, I guess.

I called both Anye (dietevil) and Chris Trimmer (TrimChris). We'll be meeting at Half Priced Books on Sunday for games, starting at 2 pm, with Die Macher scheduled for 5 pm after someone else comes. Great for me, since I wanted to go to Half Priced Books anyway. I guess I'll make a complete day of it.

Monday is Halloween; everyone will be indisposed trick-or-treating or whatever. I'll have to think of something else to do.

We found the farmer's market - some block long open air warehouses lined on each side with Mexican families selling fruit and vegetables. Good quality, but just as expensive as the supermarkets, which is strange to me, since a "shuk" in Israel means 2/5 the price of a supermarket. Also, everything was spacious, quiet, and dignified. A shuk in Israel is crowded, packed, with vendors screaming at the tops of their lungs. Maybe we came on the wrong day.

There was also a warehouse nearby with lots of interesting hand-made wooden furniture, wire and wicker stuff, and Texacana. Again, some of it nice, but most of it not what I would call a bargain. Isn't anything in Dallas cheap? No outlet stores? Hoping for better value at HPB.